Is it a good idea to have a message system that
does not seek to categorize topics.. I've wondered
about this, it makes every message anyone post as having a
total value of a week's viewing, then it disappears never to
be revisted, but often the message is repeated over and over..
Has anyone thought about a categorization system for past-topics?
Like a way of archiving discussion categorically.. We could use recurring
unique words as the basis for discovering the topics and create
a side-menu showing the various topics.. Or when someone replies to a
message, they can categorize the specific area where the message applies.

I'd suggest you direct these suggestions at www.phpbb.org since we're just using an installation of phpBB on this site. And unless anyone volunteers to code us a better replacement of phpBB, then that's what will continue to be used Interesting ideas though - I can imagine it might end up a bit more like a wiki.

And I thought I'd categorise this in blender3d/blender.org feedback, just for fun!